Thor Forums

[TurnerFam]

there's a lot of discussion of what you 'can' or 'can't' do when you have only access to 'less than' electrical power than what you RV's shore cord is designed for... and there are a lot of failures in understanding that you 'can' actually do a lot more than some may understand, IF it is treated correctly... meaning, mostly operator error in most cases, if it does not work as you expect.


Case in point - today:

we arrived in North Georgia, at a truck shop, to wait out until Monday morning for service.
they have several outside GFCI household type outlets.
while it would be nice to use my 'dual adapter' to bring two of these outlets, if on separate circuits, to the RV for up to 30amps, I know, by experience, that these adapters don't work with a GFCI outlet.....so.....

I'm relegated to only access the ONE household outlet that is close by...o.k., we'll make do with what we have access to, regardless.
My 50amp 4-prong shore cord is plugged into my 30amp 3-prong adapter.
That adapter is then plugged into a 'household' 3-prong adapter, and
then into the 'household' GFCI outlet.

I'm now running a roof air conditioner, during the heat of the day, while also enjoying 4 different electric fans spread out within the coach, having the 120v residential fridge running, charging the phones and computers, having the battery charger provide a trickle charge to the batteries, all while enjoying satellite tv from the receiver. Nice.


'CAN' you enjoy yourself while 'only' on a household outlet. Maybe yes.

I do believe, though, it will have to do with what you 'limit' yourself to, even with me just saying how much we are doing, but we are 'doing' it carefully. If the circuit's breaker trips, I will have NO access to reset it, so I 'must' be careful, but at the same time enjoy the power.
It's now quite comfortable, and it's not resulting in any 'situations' that we can't overcome. If and when we want to use the microwave, we will simply turn OFF the roof air conditioner during that short time, since it uses even less power than the air conditioner's compressor. That a/c compressor is what I'm most 'careful' with, as I want to make sure that there is very little already 'running' when it goes to kick on, which is typically when a breaker might trip, during the 'surge' of amperage needed for the start of the compressor. Ultimately, though, when the a/c unit and compressor is already running, it is only using a much smaller amperage, giving you room for those 'other' things you want to have electrical power to.

Admittedly, many breakers are of differing age and weakness, and we may eventually encounter one that does not provide as much usage before it trips, but, until then, we'll enjoy this one!


ENJOY, many things are possible! : )